Emergency Call Answering

trad

Came across this ad on jobs.ie
http://www.jobs.ie/ApplyForJob.aspx?Id=971608

Emergency call answering service operators at €10 per hour. Can't imagine they would get the caliber of applicant necessary for a tenner an hour. Is this what the service providers think all emergency calls are worth?

The Big Red Button

It's not a reflection of what the service providers consider the call operators to be worth; it's a simple matter of supply and demand.

There are plenty of highly qualified, experienced, suitable candidates sitting at home at the moment who would be very happy to get any job at all, even if it was on minimum wage. This seems like a fairly interesting challenging position for the right candidate(s). It may seem callous, but from a business perspective - why overpay?

trad

Interesting point of view chatterpillar. So if there are currently thousands of potential applicants wanting to join AGS, DFB, HSE etc that as there seems to be a good supply of applicants, lets reduce your salary to peanuts. I don't have to deal with Emergency call takers like those involved in front line, but I presumed you would want the highest quality of call taking.

miju

If I'm not mistaken this is a fairly boring job. These guys jobs are simply to ask Gardai / Fire or Ambulance and then patch through to the releant service.

For example if you ask for Gardai then you'll be patched through to the staff in Command & Control to take the actual call details etc.

So I cant imagine it being that challenging at all

Bang Bang

The BT/Conduit call takers will take 999/112 the call, ask where the subscriber is and what service they require, then transfer the subscriber to the relevent service in the required area.
The Emergency Controller for that service in that area will then take the details from the subscriber.

It's no real difference to what's happening with the Eircom call takers, it's just a new contract to another agancy.

The Big Red Button

trad wrote: »

Interesting point of view chatterpillar. So if there are currently thousands of potential applicants wanting to join AGS, DFB, HSE etc that as there seems to be a good supply of applicants, lets reduce your salary to peanuts. I don't have to deal with Emergency call takers like those involved in front line, but I presumed you would want the highest quality of call taking.

I wouldn't consider ten euro an hour to be peanuts to be honest. At the end of the day, the job is to answer calls and deal with each call as appropriate according to clearly laid-out protocols, as per the training provided.

Perhaps you are considering the emotional toll it may take on the operator? Well in my opinion, the candidates they are looking for are ones that can remain calm, logical and objective, and can refrain from allowing their job to affect them emotionally. Some people have these traits; some don't; if the recruiters do their jobs properly and recruit the right people then this won't be an issue.

trad

I haven't been front line for a long time but I'd hope to have best possible resources at my disposal including the best people all along the chain. I'm just bringing it to your attention should the emergency call answering service start to dis-improve.

Delancey

For my sins I used to work in the Eircom Emergency Call Answering Service. The strict protocol operated was connect EVERY call no matter what and while I did observe that rule re. Ambulance and Fire calls I used my , ahem , ' discretion ' re. Garda calls . A lot of Garda calls were utter bullsh*t , e.g. drunks demanding Gardai attend the nightclub where '' that bollox on the door won't let me in '' , drunks looking for Garda cars to give them a lift home , obvious hoaxers, etc. As I saw it Gardai were generally the hardest to connect calls to ( long waiting times ) and there was no way I was going to add to the problem by putting through rubbish calls , my colleagues were the same.
10 Euro an hour is lousy pay and way below what it used to be , even with that I think BT/Conduit will struggle to turn a profit on this service - should such a vital service be profit-driven ?
I just hope they take care about recruiting non-nationals and before anyone jumps down my throat and accuses me of xenophobia , racism and other abominable politically incorrect thought , let me explain :we had a few non-nationals who had fluent English and worked really hard but they struggled with Irish accents and more to the point they struggled with locations - a caller in Clontarf is asked '' where's that ? '' - cringe ! A caller in Blackrock is connected to DFB because the operator did not know it might be Blackrock in Cork , the same for Summerhill - is that Meath or Dublin , etc. And dont get me started on Coast Guard calls or mis-directed calls for the P.S.N.I !
I just wonder if this ' privatisation ' is not the shape of things to come , i.e. civilian dispatchers as is now common in American cities ?

TheNog

delancey42 wrote: »

For my sins I used to work in the Eircom Emergency Call Answering Service. The strict protocol operated was connect EVERY call no matter what and while I did observe that rule re. Ambulance and Fire calls I used my , ahem , ' discretion ' re. Garda calls . A lot of Garda calls were utter bullsh*t , e.g. drunks demanding Gardai attend the nightclub where '' that bollox on the door won't let me in '' , drunks looking for Garda cars to give them a lift home , obvious hoaxers, etc.

+1 to that. I had on occasion had the 999 operator tell me he believed this call maybe a hoax. Fair play to him he apologised to me for it, no reason to but he did anyway.

As I saw it Gardai were generally the hardest to connect calls to ( long waiting times ) and there was no way I was going to add to the problem by putting through rubbish calls , my colleagues were the same.

I can only presume the reason for a delay in answering a 999 call would be either there is more than one 999 line into a station and the Garda maybe on another 999 call or the fact that we have other responsiblities which do take us away from the 999 phone. Take FB or Ambo, they have dedicated call centres whereas we could be dealing with a prisoner being interviewed or even a violent prisoner needing to be restrained.

10 Euro an hour is lousy pay and way below what it used to be , even with that I think BT/Conduit will struggle to turn a profit on this service - should such a vital service be profit-driven ?

+1

I just hope they take care about recruiting non-nationals and before anyone jumps down my throat and accuses me of xenophobia , racism and other abominable politically incorrect thought , let me explain :we had a few non-nationals who had fluent English and worked really hard but they struggled with Irish accents and more to the point they struggled with locations - a caller in Clontarf is asked '' where's that ? '' - cringe ! A caller in Blackrock is connected to DFB because the operator did not know it might be Blackrock in Cork , the same for Summerhill - is that Meath or Dublin , etc. And dont get me started on Coast Guard calls or mis-directed calls for the P.S.N.I !
I just wonder if this ' privatisation ' is not the shape of things to come , i.e. civilian dispatchers as is now common in American cities ?

Reminds me of the few times we got 999 calls from stations of a similar name. One station is in Co. Kerry and the other is in Co. Galway :pac:

Delancey

I can only presume the reason for a delay in answering a 999 call would be either there is more than one 999 line into a station and the Garda maybe on another 999 call or the fact that we have other responsiblities which do take us away from the 999 phone. Take FB or Ambo, they have dedicated call centres whereas we could be dealing with a prisoner being interviewed or even a violent prisoner needing to be restrained.


Absolutely ! Apologies for not making it clear that this was indeed the case - sometimes even Harcourt Square had a waiting time of 3 minutes plus , several times I would connect to a Garda Station and could hear what sounded like a mini riot in the background ! Perhaps the most surprising/dissappointing calls were from ON DUTY Gardai usually in car chases but in 1 case needing urgent help - they were phoning 999 becsause their radios were ( and I quote ) '' f*x!ing useless ''.
Quite a few calls came in from off-duty Gardai as well - fair play to them .

Zambia

Sadly an oversupply of good applicants will push the wage down. they know what they have got.

They have a fairly secure job on offer that for the term of the contract is almost recession proof.

Until the voice recognition software improves.

You have requested garda .... assault assistance.... you are number [9] in the queue...please stay alive.

Delancey

Zambia232 wrote: »

Sadly an oversupply of good applicants will push the wage down. they know what they have got.

They have a fairly secure job on offer that for the term of the contract is almost recession proof.

Until the voice recognition software improves.

You have requested garda .... assault assistance.... you are number [9] in the queue...please stay alive.

Better still a recording that says :

If you are requesting Gardai to complain about a noisy neighbour , being denied entry to a nightclub , the noise of the Garda helicopter , enquiring as to the chances of your son/boyfriend getting bail , asking about Garda recruitment plans , whining about noisy dogs , bitching about inconsiderate parking by neighbours , enquiring about progress on the investigation into the burglary at your house 2 years ago or indeed any of the 101 other reasons people call the Gardai please note these are not emergencies and calling 999 will incur a fine of 1,000 Euro


Outrageous the way the ' public ' treat 999 and especially the Gardai :mad:

Hillel

delancey42 wrote: »

For my sins I used to work in the Eircom Emergency Call Answering Service. The strict protocol operated was connect EVERY call no matter what and while I did observe that rule re. Ambulance and Fire calls I used my , ahem , ' discretion ' re. Garda calls .

I understand your motives but staff not following the protocol was a significant problem for Telecom Eireann. There were a number of serious cases where Gardai did not respond quickly and claimed that they didn't get the calls. The "Operator" (as telephonists were then called) claimed in turn that he (it was always a "he" at night) couldn't get an answer from the Guards. The final solution was that all emergency calls were recorded. Later on they were also logged automatically and timestamped. BT/Conduit will use a CTI (Computer Telephony Integration) solution to track calls.

Delancey

Hillel wrote: »

I understand your motives but staff not following the protocol was a significant problem for Telecom Eireann. There were a number of serious cases where Gardai did not respond quickly and claimed that they didn't get the calls. The "Operator" (as telephonists were then called) claimed in turn that he (it was always a "he" at night) couldn't get an answer from the Guards. The final solution was that all emergency calls were recorded. Later on they were also logged automatically and timestamped. BT/Conduit will use a CTI (Computer Telephony Integration) solution to track calls.

Sure , in my time everything was recorded and time tracked to the millisecond which on more than 1 occassion saved a colleague from being in the s**t , that problems arose mainly on Garda calls is no surprise given how busy they ( Gardai ) could get , doubtless the CTI will be a good thing but alas it won't address the fundamental issue of large numbers of non-emergency calls clogging up emergency lines.

Zambia

Hillel wrote: »

I understand your motives but staff not following the protocol was a significant problem for Telecom Eireann. There were a number of serious cases where Gardai did not respond quickly and claimed that they didn't get the calls. The "Operator" (as telephonists were then called) claimed in turn that he (it was always a "he" at night) couldn't get an answer from the Guards. The final solution was that all emergency calls were recorded. Later on they were also logged automatically and timestamped. BT/Conduit will use a CTI (Computer Telephony Integration) solution to track calls.

Having spent some time on the end of a free call line I can sympathise and must add that protocol does not cover every scenario.

It seems to me what your saying is the operators should be automated as if they follow protocol exactly. Surely you could just replace them.

If every call to gardai has to be forwarded to Gardai, well then
"For Garda assistance ... press one"
-> Call forwarded